Inventory management may include electronically updating a database record that indicates the available inventory for a specific item when a transaction is processed. Updating a database record, also referred to herein as an inventory record, may include “locking” the inventory record, reducing the inventory count in the record by the items associated with the transaction, and then unlocking the inventory record so that another application, process, or thread can access it. This technique works well when the number of orders waiting for the specific inventory record is small enough that the lock/unlock process doesn't add much to the order response time. However, when the number of orders for a specific item is large, the repetitive locking and unlocking of an inventory record may cause unacceptable slow response times from the perspective of the consumer or other transaction client.